Helping Out at Brazos Abiertos

The last fortnight I've been getting into a routine at Brazos Abiertos. Every day is different, as I try be as helpful as I can despite my lack of Spanish. I'm teaching English to pre-schoolers, youth and adults, helping with homework, youth and mothers' clubs and any other random job where I'm useful.

Days at Brazos Abiertos start at 7am with devotion, so three mornings a week I leave my apartment at 6:20am, thankfully my other days start a bit later.


Tuesday and Thursday afternoons I help Carlos out with the secondary students homework club, I can do some of the Maths and all the English homework.


Tuesday mornings I hang out in a four year olds' classroom. Teacher Jenny and the kids are helping me to learn to many things in Spanish, colours, counting, shapes and vowels. Even with my lack of Spanish I can still do a little behavior management and help some kids who need some extra help.


Saturday mornings I help out with the youth program and in the afternoon teach a youth English class. I love my youth English class, they're fun kids and it's so much easier to teach students who are literate in their first language, they can read what you write, take notes and make connections.


Five mornings a week Brazos Abiertos provides breakfast for a few children who really need it, I can at least help make sandwiches and fill up pots with water.


On Wednesday mornings I teach English and help in the four and five year olds' classrooms at a nearby school Brazos Abiertos is running with the government. It's interesting to see the different resources the government provides. School programs are very structured here, teachers are given resources and told what to teach every week. The kids find me very amusing, the four year olds love to bring things to me and demand I say what they are in English.


But resources are still very limited, these cubbies are very creative and in a school with no electricity.


Thursday mornings I'm helping with a mother's club, I'll be teaching knitting starting this week. Last week we learnt how to decorate large marshmallows with chocolate and sprinkles, something the mothers could do to make a little money if they wanted.

In between times it's fun to hang out with the staff, practising English and Spanish and just having fun together.

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Saturday Afternoon

Brazos Abiertos is located next to this enormous gravel valley that is being filled with rubbish and rubble. People search the rubbish for recyclables they can sell.




Wilfredo is one of my English students who lives opposite Brazos Abiertos. Today they cooked a chicken and vegetables in the ground.


Wilfredo also creates amazing carved gourds. This is a tradition passed down through his family.


Then I decided to walk back to my apartment, takes about an hour.


Colour amongst the grey, I wonder what they're celebrating?


Getting away from her kids? There were several bricks near hers, so I'm guessing others sometimes sit there too.


I've never noticed the statue from the bus. Love these little taxis.


This guy played a tune on his whistle and people bought their knives out for him to sharpen.


Need your car fixed? Many mechanics at the Curva, about half way between Brazos Abiertos and my apartment.


Haircut, pedicure, tailor and women's tops all in the one small shop! At La Musa, the local market.


Almost back to my apartment in Sol de La Molina, a different world!

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Downtown Lima

Mondays are my day off from working at Brazos Abiertos, so this last Monday I ventured downtown. It was actually easier to get there than I expected, two buses taking about one hour and 15 minutes in total. As well as being a tourist and revisiting the main plaza I'd seen in 2013, I took a bus to a lookout over the city, had a Peruvian lunch and then found a little yarn at the Mercado Central, the big locals market downtown.


This plaza connected the walkways over the highway to the downtown area. I was impressed it could be both a walkway, a dining area, a play area and a performance space.




Loved all the colourful buildings.




Views of Lima from San Cristóbal, in the summer you can apparently see the ocean. In winter there is a constant the haze over all of Lima. Sometimes there is drizzle, which is as close as Lima ever gets to rain, being in the middle of the desert.



Official buildings around the Plaza Armas.

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My first week in La Molina, Lima, Peru

I arrived in Lima very late last Monday night and the next day was the first of two public holidays celebrating Peru's independence and also the beginning of winter school holidays. So I've had lots of time to get used to being here and learn my way around a little. The plan is to volunteer here for about two months before I begin heading south. I'm working at Brazos Abiertos, Open Arms, a ministry established by Ria and Jordi Bosch, missionaries from Holland.



Brazos Abiertos is located in a slum on the outskirts of La Molina, Lima. There are programs for children, youth and adults as well as a church. It's incredibly dusty there as Lima is surrounded by gravel hills. There seems to be a constant dusty haze here every day, even when the sun is out (it's winter here).


Singing at church being led by seventeen year old, Fabio from the jungle, living in Lima to get an education.


I've loved watching the kids learn how to use this recently donated play structure. As I push the kids on the swing we practise my counting in Spanish.


Electric taxi, holds three adults and a child quite easily, surprisingly!


I've loved getting around on the buses, they're very cheap and entertaining. Today was my first time to encounter someone selling on them, this guy sold a couple of recipe books. There are many bus companies, they all compete with each other for passengers by having the bus assistant call out for passengers. They vary their speed depending on how far ahead the next bus is. There are people at the bus stops who in return for a few cents tell them how far in front of them the next bus is. Though today I discovered if the driver goes to slow the passengers yell at the driver!


I've seen several clowns entertaining at long traffic lights, an interesting way to earn a living.

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